From Some Other Beginning's End
by justaddgigi
Summary: Stiles thought that after the pack had eliminated the Alpha Pack that life would return to normal. Unfortunately for Stiles, he spirals into a cycle of depression and self-destructive behavior, during which he discovers a deeply held family secret.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 **December 21, 1989**

Everyone was dead, and she was the only one left. Her mother who taught her to sew, cook, to laugh, and dance, and her father who used to read to her at night and taught her to love the earth were both dead. And then there were her two older brothers, who were overprotective, and annoying. She was the only one left. The little girl collapsed on her knees. She just stared unblinkingly at the rigid bodies of her family laying in front of her. This had to be a nightmare, or a trick, because they couldn't be gone. The little girl had just only just talked to them this morning over breakfast. Her eyes stung as tears fell down her pale cheeks. She remembered her mother telling her to not get her dress dirty, that they were having a special guest for dinner. She looked down at her white muslin dress, now bloody, and a sob escaped her mouth, her shoulders shaking, as she tried to hold on to the scream.

She collapsed over the nearest body, her screams muffled into the still chest of what she would later realize used to be her father. The little girl knelt there for what seemed like forever, weeping in big heaving sobs as the shock of her family's deaths was replaced with a despair so deep that it seemed to almost swallow her whole.

Her head snapped up as she heard the sound of heavy boot steps coming closer, and she knew with a certainty that she couldn't explain that her family's murderer was still in the house.

On shaking legs, she got to her feet, turned, and bolted from the house, long dark brown hair whipping around her as she made her way across her front lawn and into the nearby forest. The little girl panted as her heart pounded rapidly in her chest. The girl ran through the forest, the branches of the trees and bushes snagging into her dress as made her way through the forest She could barely see a thing in the dim light, but she knew the only way she wouldn't share the same fast as her family if she didn't get away. Her goal was to run and put as many meters between her and the man who murdered her family as possible.

Her foot caught on a root, and she suddenly found herself slamming down hard on the ground. She scrambled to her feet, but a shadow crossed her face, causing her to freeze.

Her whole body shook, her eyes wide she stared up into the cold hold eyes of her family's killer. "Please..." she whimpered, "Don't do this!"

But the little girl knew that this ruthless man would kill her. As he lunged at her, everything faded away to a vision of endless white.


	2. Chapter 1: On the Outside Look

Chapter 1: On the Outside Looking In

Chapter Text

June 7, 2016

School couldn't end fast enough in Stiles Stilinski's opinion. It was less than three days until the school year was supposed to end,,and every second he was stuck inside in a classroom was agony. Stiles sighed, and threw a longing look at the window, before turning back to where Mr. Harris was writing a long and complex formula on the chalkboard. He knew he should pay attention, because the chemistry final exam was only a few days away, but he couldn't concentrate.

Stiles tapped his pencil against his notebook, and turned his head to look outside the window. For once, it was a picture-perfect California day. He could be at the pool right now, the public pools in Beacon Hills opened last week. But no, he was stuck in this boring ass class, listening to Harris drone on and on.

For a while, Stiles doodled a stick figure of Harris, glasses and snooty expression and all. Then, abruptly, his notebook was jerked out of his hand and he looked up into his horror to see Harris glaring down at his doodle. Harris looked up from the notebook to scowl even harder at , who was sitting in the desk right next to him, threw him a sympathetic look.

"Do you think this is funny, Mr. Stilinski?" Harris asked, practically shoving the notebook in his face.

"Uh, n…no?" Stiles manfully squeaked. He coughed, and said again a bit more confidently, "No, of course not!"

Harris crossed his arms, his face getting red, his lips curling into a hard sneer. "I think that you'll find detention-"

Mr. Harris froze, his body going suddenly going stock still as if someone had pushed pause. Behind his glasses, his hazel eyes glazed over and his mouth opened.

"Mr. Harris?" Stiles asked, feeling a little more than freaked out.

But he didn't answer, Mr. Harris just stood there still as a statute. And Stiles exchanged bewildered looks with Scott, who in the end just shrugged. Stiles stood up to try and wake Harris from his stupor, risking the teacher's wrath. When he stopped, his nose wrinkling at the sharp smell of grass. It was mixed in with a scent that familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. It was a subtle scent, barely detectable, but it was soft and saccharine

"Stiles?" Scott asked, worriedly.

Stiles blinked and shook his head He didn't turn, but whispered softly, knowing that Scott's wolfy super hearing would pick it up, "Do you smell that?".

Scott's eyes flashed a bright golden yellow for a moment, as he visibly sniffed. Stiles just barely managed to contain his need to facepalm at Scott's lack of discretion.

"Sweaty teenager?" Scott trailed off, looking at Erica who was sitting near the back of the room. His packmate just rolled her eyes, and looked away. With a sigh, his gaze traveled around the room,and stopped at an oblivious Greenburg and shot him a disgusted look before turning back to Stiles, "And yeah, you don't want to know what else."

Then as suddenly as he came out of his stupor, Mr. Harris blinked and shook his head. He took off his glasses and wiped them brusquely on his shirt before putting them back on. His confusion instantly turning back into annoyance as his attention turned back to Stiles.

"If you are done distracting the rest of my class," Harris sneered. "Then I suggest you sit down." He spun on his feet and headed back to the front of the class.

Stiles sat down back and his seat and shook his head. 'What the hell was that?"

ssssss

The rest of class seemed to crawl along at a snail's pace. By the time the bell finally rang, Stiles was practically jumping out of his skin with the need to get out of that classroom. And because Harris was a grade-A douche, he made them wait until he dismissed them. Stiles shot of his chair, almost crashing onto the floor in his haste to get out of there. He quickly righted himself and started to hurriedly shove his things into his backpack.

"Ouch!" He exclaimed as he was suddenly shoved hard into his desk. Stiles winced at the sharp pain in his side. Stiles looked up in time enough to see Erica throw him a malicious smirk from over her shoulder before she strutted out of the room. Stiles glared at her retreating back, and rubbed his side. Stiles thought that after Derek finally killed Deucalion and the pack ran the rest of the Alpha Pack out of town that he would be accepted into their group. They accepted Scott when he hesitantly accepted Derek as his Alpha, but Stiles was still just the human tagalong. The pack's bullying had gotten worse and worse, and Scott's attention was taken up by Allison, and co-captaining the Lacrosse team. The pack took every opportunity to torment him.

"Ready to head out?" Scott asked, distracted, not looking up from his phone.

"Yeah, I guess." Stiles said, as he rubbed his sore ribs.

Scott finally looked up and gave him a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

Stiles shrugged, and shoved the remainder of his stuff into his bag, and put it on. "I'm fine," he finally said, wondering why he was even trying to lie when Scott would immediately pick up on it. But to his surprise, Scott just nodded, and then he suddenly perked up.

"Guess what?" He asked, and Stiles could almost see his metaphorical tail wagging.

"Allison just texted me," Scott said, eagerly.

"Oh, that's great, man," Stiles said" Stiles said, as they began to walk out of the room. He kept his eyes averted from Harris as they passed his desk and out into the busy hallway.

"Yeah, there is a party on Friday", Scott said, a soft look coming over his face as he obviously thought of Allison. 'Well, that lasted longer than I thought.' Honestly, it had been two months since Allison and Scott broke up. It was only a matter of a time until they got back together, and he was mostly happy for the both of them. Although, there was a small part of him that still didn't forgive her for the way she acted out after her mother's death.

Scott beamed at Stiles. "Yeah, she asked me to go with her."

Stiles stopped, his face going pale and his eyes growing wide as watched Scott walk on, completely oblivious to Stiles's absence at his side.

'Move it, loser," said one of Jackson's old cronies, Taylor Dalton, as he shoved Stiles aside.

Stiles rolled his eyes and pushed his way through the crowd. Scott was by the door of the cafeteria looking confused. "Where were you, dude?"

"Never mind that," Stiles Taylor Dalton, as he shoved Stiles aside. you mean that you got invited to Lydia's End of School Bash?!"

This was like a flashback to when Scott got invited to Lydia's party just after he was turned, even though Friday was nowhere near the full was Lydia, his strawberry-blonde haired goddess, and it hurt that she was back to ignoring him. She hadn't even considered inviting him to her party, and yet Scott was welcomed to one of the hottest parties of the year, a party that was practically legendary in Beacon Hills. Meanwhile, Stiles was once again stuck at home, alone.

"Yeah, isn't that great?" Scott asked excitedly.

"Yeah," Stiles said, mournfully. "Great."

"You okay?" Scott asked, giving Stiles a weird look.

Stiles pasted a smile on his face, "Perfectly fine." Scott once again didn't pick up on the lie, but Stiles didn't care why. He was just grateful. "Look, I just remembered I have to pick up some books for my AP World Project." Which wasn't a lie, but Stiles could have done it another time.

Scott nodded, "Okay, see you later?"

"Yeah," Stiles nodded back. "See you later." And with that Stiles spun around and walked felt more and more like everything, Scott included, was slipping away from him, and there was no stopping it.


	3. Chapter 2: Going Under

By the time Stiles had to see Scott again in Math class (which luckily was his last class of the day) he had regained some of his composure. He wasn't a child, he could be happy for Scott and his sudden surge to popularity. _He could._ Stiles was a big boy, and he would just have suck it up.

So when he sat down in the desk next to Scott, he pasted on a smile and continued to pretend that everything was just fine and dandy. He tried to play attention, and he usually loved this class. was an awesome teacher, but no matter how hard he tried the class didn't really keep his attention. He was distracted by the conversation he had had with Scott in the hallway. It was going around and around in his head, mixed in with Lydia and Jackson's tearful reunion, which was ripped off from every fairy tale story _ever_.

Finally the bell rang, and Stiles and Scott packed up their books and walked out of the classroom to their lockers, which were right next to each other. They opened their lockers and started to take out their books.

"So, do you want to come over and play "Call Of Duty"?" Stiles asked.

Scott shoved a few books into his locker, and turned to give Stiles an apologetic look. "Sorry, dude. Derek wanted us to come over for a training session. Raincheck?'

'Yeah, I guess." Stiles once again forced himself to smile, and nodded. "Maybe I can just come by and watch?'

Scott averted his eyes, "I don't think that's a good idea….you know how Derek is about pack stuff."

Stiles rolled his eyes, "The pack business is for pack only," he said in a deeper voice in a mimic of Derek.. And unfortunately, Derek had made it abundantly clear after the Alpha pack that Stiles, weak useless human hanger on that he was not considered pack.

Scott shut his locker and frowned at Stiles. "He's just trying to keep you safe. Being around…" He looked around and then whispered. " _werewolves_ are dangerous ."

Stiles rolled his eyes as he turned to shove the books he would need to study into his backpack. "Yeah, but shouldn't it be, you know, _my choice_ to risk my life?"

Scott opened his mouth, but was interrupted by Allison coming up to them and hugging Scott. Stiles just managed not to roll his eyes again and looked away when the two of them acted like they were suddenly reunited after days apart instead of mere hours. Stiles coughed, and the two turned around and gave him sheepish looks.

"Hi, Stiles!" Allison said, throwing him one of her usual blinding Disney Princess smiles.

"Hi, Allison," Stiles replied, putting on his backpack. He turned to Scott, "Do you need a ride to the Hale House?"

Scott put an arm around Allison, and shook his head. "Nah, Allison said she give me a ride."

Stiles stepped back and nodded, "O...okay, then. I guess I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah, dude," Scott smiled, patting Stiles on the back with his free hand. "Later."

Scott and Allison walked away, Allison giving a wave before they were swallowed up by the crowd.

* * *

When Stiles got home, he completely bypassed the living room and headed immediately upstairs. He dropped his bag near the door, and flopped head first on to his bed. He groaned, because this had definitely had been a shit day. Fuck, it had definitely been a shit year,, and for a moment he wished that his life would go back to the simpler times, before Scott was bitten.

His phone vibrated, so Stiles flipped over and pulled it out of his pocket. It was a message from his father.

"I'm working late tonight. Don't wait up. Be good, kiddo."

Stiles threw his phone on his bed, and sighed."Guess I'm on my own tonight, but what else is new?"

Stiles got up and went to his bag, and then over to his desk. He sat down and booted up his laptop. He might as well get a start on studying. Just because Scott apparently didn't care about his grades didn't mean Stiles could afford to see his own slip.

* * *

It was hours later, and Stiles was just staring at the page, the same page he had been staring at for the last fifteen minutes. He shut the book, and slammed it on his desk. There was just no way Stiles was going to get any studying done while being so distracted. He sighed, and ran a hand over his short shorn head and stood up.

Stiles's stomach gave a loud embarrassing growl, and he shook his head. ' _A trip to the kitchen it is_ ,' he thought, and walked down the stairs. He opened up a cabinet and pushed away the false back to reveal a package of box of Poptarts. Stiles quickly opened them and started eating.

As Stiles scarfed the Poptarts down, he once again noticed how eerily quiet the house was, and couldn't help but feel more than a bit lonely. Stiles should be used to it, this was one of many nights he had been home alone while his father was off working. But after today, the loneliness was harder to ignore. He shook his head, and walked out of the kitchen but stopped as he spotted his father's liquor cabinet.

To be honest, this day had been hell and he _could_ use a drink. Stiles personally didn't drink often, because he had a father who was in Law Enforcement, and most of the time it wasn't worth the Sheriff's wrath and/or lectures on underage drinking. But Stiles was a little bit tempted, actually more than a little tempted, to indulge.

Besides, who was Stiles kidding, he was more than ready for his final exams, and one drink wasn't going to hurt. Stiles went over to the liquor cabinet and, with all the experience of years of practice, Stiles unlocked the liquor cabinet, took a bottle of cheap whisky, and swallowed a mouthful of it.

Stiles sighed, as he could practically feel the stress melt off him with the burn of the whiskey.

* * *

One drink turned into two, and two turned into one too many to count, Before he knew it, he was laying on the living room floor giggling to himself. But before long, Stiles began to feel as though the walls were closing in him, and it was way too hot. He desperately needed some fresh air. Stiles stumbled out of the room, and out the back door.

He sighed as the cooler air hit his skin. Stiles started to walk, he knew he should go inside but he just wanted to be away from everything for a while. So Stiles stumbled across his open yard and into the bordering forest.

Stiles bumbled through the trees and before he knew it the house could no longer be seen.

He stopped, shivering in his red hoodie, admitting to himself that yep, this had been a stupid idea. Stiles took out his phone and groaned when he saw the battery was low.

Feeling a little more sober now, he decided to turn around but freaked out. Why had he thought this was a good idea again? Stiles turned around and silently prayed that he would just stumble across his house.

After walking across the same fallen log for the third time, Stiles started to admit that he was lost.

He flopped on to the log, almost falling off of it in the process, and tried to make his alcohol addled mind freaking _think_.

He was just about to attempt a howl in pure desperation, thinking that Derek with his super special werewolf hearing could pick it up and save him with his usual death glare. When he felt the slight prickling of the hairs on the back of his neck, as if someone was watching him.

Stiles jerked to his feet and spun around to find that nobody was there. But he could still feel someone watching him.

"Derek?" he called out, "Is that you being a creeper?"

There was no response and Stiles stepped back and turned around, when a figure detached from the shadows to lunge at him, shoving him down onto the hard ground with an oomph, knocking the air out of him.

Stiles physically recoiled, limbs flailing, his body surging up as he tried to get away from his attacker, but the person was too strong.

His attacker pressed him to the ground, pinning his arms. It was then that he finally got a look at it. The creature had a withered face, ghostly white. The surface reminded Stiles of a texture of cracked sand, but it was the eyes that were the most were no pupils, just endless pitch black. .

"So new….so _delicious_ ," it slurred as it leaned down, sniffing his neck. Stiles let out a whimper as he suddenly felt the world slow down around him, and his movements become lethargic like he was moving through quicksand, drowning just that much more the more he struggled.

He blinked, his vision becoming blurry and the creature becoming nothing more than a menacing shape looming over him. "Wha…" he slurred, for the first time unable to find the words to speak. Stiles couldn't help but close his eyes, the lure of unconsciousness was too strong.


	4. Chapter 3: When One Door Closes

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Just as Stiles felt himself surrendering to his exhaustion, something ignited inside, hot and piercing. Up from his chest and out into his body the feeling exploded. He could vaguely smell that same sweet saccharine smell he had smelt back in Chemistry class, and then incredibly there was a branch sticking out of his chest./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The monster snarled, grasping at it's chest, stumbling away off Stiles and onto the ground. Stiles blinked, trying to will himself to stay awake, somehow knowing that if he fell asleep that he would die. Stiles used his little remaining strength to crawl away from the monster, who was now yanking the offending branch out of his chest with a wet squelch of blood./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The wound healed and then the abomination snarled again,about to lunge at him, when a loud, ferocious roar echoed through the forest. Stiles prayed that it was Derek and the pack, and not some other monster out to eat him. The creature turned to dart it's gaze around the forest, and then turned back to Stiles, throwing him a look of hunger and longing before it turned and ran away in a blur of movement./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles sighed, and slumped to the ground. Even with his blurry vision, he could see the all too familiar red of Derek's eyes as he came crashing out of the trees. There were vague blurry shapes behind him that Stiles was pretty sure was the pack./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles tried to smile, and gave them an exhausted wave. "H...Hey there, sourwolf," he slurred before the exhaustion became too much for him, and he finally passed out./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" align="center"*#*#*#*#*/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Did you find anything?" was the first thing Stiles heard as he gradually woke up. Head pounding, Stiles tried to open his eyelids, but the light was too much and stung his eyes. He snapped them close, and groaned./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He's just waking up," said the annoyingly loud voice. " Continue to patrol the perimeter of the preserve and I will be there as soon as I can."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles turned his head into the sheets, and how did the hell did he end up in a bed? The last thing he remembered was the forest? And then the image of the black eyes of the creature jolted him straight up into his bed. Confused, his gaze darted around his room—and he was definitely in his room—to see Derek standing at the end of the bed glaring down at him with the judgiest eyebrows Stiles has ever seen./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles closed his eyes, and cradled his still pounding head in his hands. "W...what happened?" he croaked./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I found you drunk off your ass in the woods," Derek stated curtly. /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""There was this creature...?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yes, and you are damn lucky to be alive, Stiles," Derek said, his voice rising angrily. "What the were you thinking?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles looked up to meet Derek's red eyes and swallowed, "I…" He tried to explain, but really he had no excuse. It had been a stupid decision on his part to get drunk and go out into the forest. "Sorry?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Derek crossed his arms and managed to somehow glare at him even harder. "Sorry is not good enough."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles flailed his arms, "What do want me to say?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You cost us possibly our only chance at killing this monster, because of you it is quite possible that it will kill again."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles staggered out of bed, almost falling on his face, but stood up on shaky legs. "That is not fair! I-I didn't know, if someone would have, you know, told me what was going on—"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Derek cut him off, "I didn't tell you because this is a pack matter and you are not pack."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles snapped his mouth close, suddenly having to blink back tears. Because it was one thing to hear it from Scott, but to hear it from Derek made it undeniably real. Derek didn't give a shit about him, thought him a liability, and he felt like a mixture of grief and rage well up inside of him so strong that it almost surprised him./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Get out."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What did you say to me?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles glared him, and held back his tears because he was damned if Derek Hale would ever see him cry. "Get out of my house!" /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"They just stood there for a long moment glaring at each other, before Derek Hale said, "Fine, but you better stay out of the woods, or else."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles snorted, "Whatever. Just leave."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Derek glared at him one last time before he was climbing out of the window and leaving Stiles alone. Stiles walked over to the bed and sat down. He put his head in his hands and his shoulders started to shake as he cried for the first time since his mother died./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" align="center"*#*#*#*#*/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles really didn't sleep well that night. With a massive hangover, and the nightmares that came when he was finally managing to go to sleep, he only got a few hours of sleep. Every time Stiles closed his eyes he could see the creature's obsidian orbs, could hear Derek telling him that he wasn't pack./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Before Stiles knew it, his father was banging on his door and telling him to get his butt out of bed or he was going to be late for school. Stiles groaned, and grabbed his pillow and put it over his head. em 'Maybe I can pretend to be sick.'/em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles quickly disregarded that thought. His Chem Final was today, and Harris was looking for any scant excuse to fail him, and he would be damned if he would let his GPA suffer because of the pack. He glared at the window, as replayed Derek's harsh words in his head. Stiles was diffidently lining his house with mountain ash as soon as he got back home. Stiles sighed angrily and finally got up, showered, got dressed, grabbed his backpack, and headed downstairs. He made a beeline for the coffee pot, and waved absently at his equally exhausted father./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He opened the cabinet and pulled out of a mug and filled it. Stiles practically moaned into his coffee cup. /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Rough night?" His father asked, lifting an eyebrow./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles took another large gulp, before he put down his cup and turned around to look at his father. "Uh, yeah, I didn't sleep well."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yeah, I can see that," The Sheriff said, looking at the dark rings under his son's eyes./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles shrugged, and he decided to change the subject. "So how was work?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The Sheriff shook his head. "It was a long night. Found a body in the woods."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles perked up, "What, really?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The Sheriff narrowed his eyes. "No, I'm not telling you anything about it."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But Dad-"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""No," The Sheriff said as he stood. "This is police business, Stiles."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Police business is for the Police," Stiles finished. "I know, I know." He winced because it was familiar to what Scott had told him yesterday when he asked to go to the pack 'The pack business is for pack only.'/em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The Sheriff walked over to him and patted him on the back. "You better be off, now, or you are going to be late."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stiles just barely managed not to pout, but sighed, and grabbed his backpack and his keys and headed out of the door. Stiles got into his car, and looked at the house. His father couldn't tell him anything, but Stiles had google-fu for a reason. If the body had anything to do with the creature, and Stiles' instincts told him it did, then he was going to find out everything he could./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He sighed, and turn his car on and headed to school. Stiles had a long day of avoiding the pack and a Chem Final from hell to deal with./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /br /br /p 


	5. Chapter 4: One Door Opens

School for the next few days was, in one word, _hell_. He spent the remaining days of his sophomore year avoiding the pack. The very sight of Scott and the others made him want to start throwing punches, so it was better for him (and his very breakable human body) to just stay away from the pack. So for the most part Stiles tried to pretend like he wasn't hurting, that the Pack didn't exist. Addon his recurring nightmares of the creature and his lack of sleep as a result, making those days utterly unbearable.

However, his new abundance of free time was taken up by studying for his exams and taking breaks to research the creature and the murder. The creature could have been anything from a Vampire to a Skinwalker. The characters of the creature didn't really seem to fit all the characteristics and behavior of anyone particular creature. Finding anything about the murder was equally frustrating, The victim that was found was later identified as Lacey Schultz, a college student going to nearby Berkeley. There were no visible defense wounds, and no obvious signs of death. The only reason it was being investigated was because the last time Lacey's friends saw her, she was wrapped up around a girl in a bar two towns over.

No one knows how Lacey's body ended that far North in the preserve of all places. Stiles tried to narrow her cause of death to see if there could be a supernatural origin. Unfortunately, the possibilities were endless.

Therefore, with no or little leads on the one interesting thing that was happening in Beacon Hills, and with no friends, Stiles found himself on Friday night trying to concentrate on watching Star Wars for the thousandth time, but he soon found his attention wandering. He spun around in his chair and his eyes settled on the new Call of Duty video game. He was so excited to buy it because he knew that Scott would love it.

He felt the familiar rage that he had been repressing since his breakdown a few days ago surge once again through him. He was trembling under the force of it, and he wanted to punch someone. In a perfect world, it would be Scott, because he expected Derek to be an asshole, but Scott, _Scott_ had been his brother. They had been practically attached to the hip since birth.

Their mothers had been friends, had gotten pregnant just around the same time as each other. Scott and Stiles had been through it all. Stiles had been there when Scott's useless father had left Scott and Melissa. Scott had been there during his mother's long drawn out fight with frontotemporal dementia. Hell, Scott and Melissa were beside him at his mother's funeral. They were there for him when his father simultaneously worked, and drunk himself, to near death. Stiles was there when Scott was first diagnosed with asthma, not to mention Scott being bitten and all the werewolf shenanigans that have occurred since then.

Yet, Scott could easily disregard a life long friendship for the pack and for a pretty face. Stiles clenched his fists and turned around and marched down the stairs. Stiles considered getting a drink, but the face of the creature that attacked him flashed in his mind and he thought better of it. Stiles decided to drive for a bit to clear his head.

* * *

Stiles drove around the town. Like most small towns at this time of night, most of downtown was quiet and dark. He ended up going towards the southern edge of the town where Beacon's meagre 'Club District' was. He passed through the few clubs and bars and was about to head out of town past the city limits, when he spotted the familiar brick building that was the Jungle Night Club.

To his surprise, even though it was a Friday night, there wasn't a long line to get in. Honestly, Stiles should just go home, but he was tired of seeing the same four walls. And maybe dancing would tire him out enough to actually get some sleep that night. Stiles parked his car, and headed over to the club.

* * *

After waiting in line for a brief amount of time, Stiles paid his cover fee and entered the club. The techno music was loud enough that it vibrated through the souls of his feet, up into the rest of his body. The place was crowded, the strobe lights flickering across the writhing masses of the club-goers on the dance floor.

Stiles spotted the bar, just off the other edge of the dance floor, and decided to get a drink. After his brush with alcohol a few days earlier, he was still a little leery of getting drunk again. He decided to just see about getting a virgin drink, or some water, as he tried to build his courage up enough to head onto the dancefloor.

Stiles pushed his way through the crowd, at one point yelping as his ass was groped. His eyes darted around the place, but he couldn't put a finger on the perpetrator. He rolled his eyes, and continued his way to the bar. After a while, he was finally there.

The bar, like the rest of this place, was busy. And it took him forever to catch the eye of a bartender; he was surprised to see that bartender was a woman she had dark carmel colored skin. It was rare to see a woman working at a gay bar, but he shrugged. She lifted a dark, manicured eyebrow at him and walked over to his side.

"What can I do for you?" she asked, practically having to shout over the music.

"A drink?" Stiles shouted back.

She looked him up and down and smirked, "ID?"

Stiles rolled his eyes. "I will take a coke, please."

The woman snorted then shook her head, her long dark hair that was put in a high ponytail whipping around her. "That's what I thought."

She quickly poured his coke in a glass, and slid it across the bar to him. Stiles paid for his drink, and as the bartender walked away to help the other patrons, Stiles turned around and watched the people on the dancefloor, his feets tapping idly on the floor along to the music, which turned into something slow and sultry.

"Would you like to dance?"

Stiles turned his head, and did a double take at the guy. For a moment, he thought it was Derek standing right next to him; the man had the same dark black spiky hair, bushy eyebrows, stubble, and muscles, and to top it all off the man was wearing a leather jacket.

But at as he got a closer look, the features were thinner, with the nose and the shape of the man's mouth different. He gave a sigh of relief; it wasn't Derek, just a damn good look alike.

"Are you okay?"

Stiles blinked and shook his head. "Uh, yeah. What did you say?"

The man nodded towards the dancefloor, "Would you like to dance?"

Stiles flushed, and thought about it. Stiles was bisexual; he had never told anyone, but he haddn't asked Danny. He was attracted to gay guys-. And then there was Derek with his perfect scowly face, and his muscles on top of muscles, looking like a walking, talking Calvin Klein ad. And yeah, it was more than a bit disconcerting that this guy looked like a body double for Derek, but maybe he could safely work out all of his Derek feelings on this dude. A guy, by the way, who was looking at him hungrily.

"Okay."

"I'm Julian, by the way." Julian smiled.

Stiles rubbed the back of his head, "Uh, Stiles."

Julian smiled, and held out his hand. Stiles took it, and Julian lead him to the dancefloor. The man took Stiles into his arms, until their bodies were pressed flush together. Stiles was a little awkward at first; he didn't know where to put his hands, and he was not really used to being this close to another man. But after a while Stiles eventually relaxed against him.

Julian brushed his lips against Stiles' head as he pulled him closer, until they were practically grinding against each other. Stiles began to feel dizzy as friction from the man's leg rubbed against his cock. He looked up to see the man's eyes were no longer that blue but dilated to dark orbs. He bent down and whispered into his ear, "May I kiss you?"

And Stiles, who was feeling more than a little horny and a bit punch drunk with lust at the moment, took his head in his warm hands and kissed him. His lips were soft and demanding. His hands slipped from his face, down his shoulder and then abruptly the hands were on his ass.

And his leg was replace with the feeling of the shape of Julian's hard cock against him. Stiles gasped, a frisson of pleasure shooting down his spine, and a big part of him wanted more. But the logical part of him knew that he was not ready for actual sex right now. So he pushed Julian away, and took a step back.

"I'm sorry, but-"

Julian grinned, and shrugged. "It's okay. I understand."

Stiles sighed. "Thanks."

"Can I have your phone number?"

Stiles eyes went wide. "Uh, really?"

Julian took his hand, and pulled him close to give him another short, sweet kiss. "I would really like to see you again."

Stiles knew that this was probably a bad idea, as Stiles handed Julian his phone to input his number. However, maybe this could be something he needed right now, and Julian wanted him around and he was definitely lacking that right now.


	6. Chapter 5: A Crack in the Wall

Four hours later, Stiles found himself truly smiling for the first time in a long time as he drove home. Someone actually liked him, someone actually cared about how he felt, and the feeling of that buoyed him like nothing else in his life had since his 'encounter' with Gerard Argent.

He waved the bad thoughts away; he was not going to ruin the pure euphoria of his feelings with negativity. Stiles was going to hold on to this feeling as long as he could. After a bit of a drive, Stiles was finally pulling into the driveway in front of the dark house.

His smile slipped a little away as he looked at the lifeless place. He wished he could go anywhere else, but this was home. Stiles sighed and got out of the car and into the house. In his room, he didn't turn on the light, underestimating his clumsiness, and he ended up tripping over a discarded book on the floor. Stiles swore underneath his breath and fell face first onto his bed with an oomph.

"Home, sweet home," he muttered into his sheets before he rolled over and laid like that for a long time. His exhaustion, which was a mixture of a long night of impromptu dancing, and sleepless nights, was catching up with him.

Stiles blinked his eyes and yawned. He knew he should get up and get out of his clothes. At the very least, he should get out of his shoes, but he was too comfortable to get closed his eyes and fell asleep

* * *

Stiles shot straight up in bed, hearing a bang. Heart pounding in his chest, he scrambled out of his bed, falling on the floor, reaching for his door opened, and the Sheriff stood there in the doorway, lifting an eyebrow.

"Stiles?"

Stiles blinked up at his father, who was now looking at him in concern. Stiles looked down at the bat in his hands and dropped it like it was on fire, scrambling to his feet. "Sorry about that."

The Sheriff walked over to him, still in uniform, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Where did you get that bat?" He looked down at it on the floor then back up to meet his son's eyes wide, panicked eyes. "And what's got you so spooked?"

Stiles looked away, unable to meet his father's eyes. Suddenly, Stiles desperately longed for the happiness of last night to return. But that was a fluke at best, and this was his reality. So he turned back to his father and, for what seemed like the thousandth time, pasted on a smile and said, "Oh, I get spooked sometimes here at night by myself." He shrugged, his voice cheerfully fake.

"You know how it is with the house settling and odd noises at night. And the bat came recommended by Mrs. McCall as the best in low-tech security."

"Uh, huh," the Sheriff said, throwing him a dubious look which was shortly replaced with the usually disappointed frown. "Look, I'm not going to fight with you on this. I'm way too tired for that." He ran his hand through his hair. "But one day I'll find out the truth, and you're going to have to come clean."

Stiles opened his mouth to protest, but the Sheriff put his hand up. "Now, I want you to get dressed, and after breakfast I want you to go up to the attic and sort through all that crap up there to take the bazaar."

Stiles had forgotten about the usual widow's Fund Annual Bazaar. Stiles always helped with the organizing, but with all the supernatural shenanigans, it slipped his mind. He bet was disappointed in him. And her disappointed look was just as poignant as the one his father was currently throwing at him.

"O...Okay."

The Sheriff sighed and shook his head before he turned around and walked out of the room.

"Well, that went well," Stiles said. He started to take off his clothes. In the middle of taking off his pants, he felt his pocket vibrate. Confused, Stiles pulled out his phone and frowned at the screen. He had a lot missed texts and calls. There were 10 missed texts from Scott, three from Allison, and even one from Derek. He deleted all of those messages without even reading them. He really had nothing else to say to any of them.

He fingers hovered over the text from Julian.

"I had a great time last night. Want it to do it again sometime?"

Stiles found himself smiling again. His smiled faded as he really thought about it, now that it was morning and there was some distance, he started to really consider the implications of starting anything with Julian. Julian was sexy as hell, and he liked Stiles, but to be honest with himself (which is something he always tried to do) the man looked a little too much like Derek to be anything other than a substitute for him. Was that fair to either him or Julian? However, Julian wanted him; it was obvious from the way he practically devoured Stiles with his eyes, and for someone like Stiles who had always been ignored, or pushed aside, it was tempting to let this go on.

"Fuck it," Stiles said and texted back. "Sure, how about we meet up for coffee or something?" He sent it before he could he talk himself out of it.

To his surprise, Julian immediately texted him back. "I'm busy most of the day, but how about dinner instead?"

"Yes. What time?"

"How about 8 pm at Satchmo's?"

Stiles' eyebrows rose a bit because Satchmo's was the most expensive restaurant in town."Fine," Stiles said. "I'll see you then."

Stiles put down his phone and pumped his fist. He was going on his first date ever tonight. He frowned down at his clothes, wondering what to wear.

Stiles shook his head and finished undressing. He was going to have a long day.

* * *

After a quick shower and breakfast and Stiles made his way to the attic. He wanted to sort through the attic and get their junk to the bazaar by six, so he would have plenty of time to get ready for his date with Julian. He grabbed a broom and trudged upstairs to the end of the hall where the large covered entrance to the attic was.

After fumbling with the broom for a bit, Stiles was able to pull the attic door open. He quickly stumbled back as the ladder slid down to the floor with a heavy thud. Stiles rolled his eyes and made his way up the stairs. He sneezed, his eyes practically watering at the dust, and the astringent smell of mothballs immediately overwhelmed his senses.

"Jesus," Stiles sneezed again, and wiped his nose on his sleeve."This place is hell on the allergies."

Stiles shook his head and squared his shoulders as he walked farther into the room. The light spilling from the tiny window on the other side of the attic still only barely managed to illuminate the room.

Stiles pushed back his sleeves and started with the box nearest to him. He sorted the contents of the box, which was filled with old romance novels and a stack of old newspapers that he had no idea why his father had been saving. Stiles went on like that for the next few hours, going through box after box. Sorting out old clothing, books, and knick-knacks that he would take to the bazaar.

At one point, Stiles came across a few boxes stacked with photo albums that Stiles made the decision right then and there to ignore. He had a date tonight, an actual date, and Stiles would not ruin that by going down the long, dangerous road to Memory Lane.

Stiles stopped and checked his phone for the time and was surprised that there were only a few hours until his date with Julian. His eyes darted around the room, and he realized that he only had a few boxes left.

He dusted off his hands on his already dirty jeans and sighed to himself. He longed for a nice long shower after this. Stiles sighed and maneuvered through all the piles of old, broken furniture and boxes. Soon Stiles would be on his date with Julian, and he wouldn't have to see this place hopefully for a long time.

"Fuck," Stiles swore as tripped over the leg of the chair, and he just barely kept himself from falling on his face by holding on to the wall. He hissed as he felt something hard slice through his hand. Recovering his balance he held up his hand to see there was a long cut on the palm.

"I hope I don't need a tetanus shot," he muttered under his breath. He used the bottom of his shirt to staunch the bleeding and was about to turn around to head downstairs to spray some antiseptic on it when he smelt it.

It was that achingly familiar sweet scent again that overwhelmed the attic's usual smell of mold. Stiles' eyes went wide as he suddenly saw a bright light pulsating from beneath the boards. Stiles groaned because he wasn't was a coincidence, twice was a pattern and all that. Stiles thought about Harris and his strange behavior, and how easily he backed off. But what did this have to do with his house? And why was this suddenly happening now?

Stiles stood there, hesitant, but finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he walked over to the wall. He carefully touched the hard surface with his uncut hand, hoping that he wouldn't get cut again. Abruptly, the light under the cracks of the wall got brighter.

"What the fuck!" Stiles yelped and stepped back as the section of the wall cracked and shattered, falling like broken glass onto the floor. The glow faded away, and Stiles looked down at the mess and groaned. "Dad is going to kill me."

He looked back to the open space on the wall and noticed a rectangular wooden box about the size of a shoe box. Engraved on the front was a symbol. Stiles got closer and once again fought with himself. He shouldn't touch this; if he was smart he would call Deaton and let him deal with whatever it was.

He glared at the box, as Stiles realized that Deaton could quite possibly tell Scott, and Scott would eventually spill to Derek, and just no. He would have to handle it himself. He set his jaw, reached in, and picked up the box.

Stiles opened it and frowned down at the simple silver locket that laid inside of it. 'All of that trouble for this?' He thought as he picked up and traced the faint line of the same symbol that was on the box. Stiles tried to open the locket, but no matter hard he tried, he couldn't. Stiles' hands clenched around the necklace and he considered just throwing it back in the box and forgetting about it. But Stiles wasn't stupid. He knew that the smell he been smelling lately, and Harris's weird behavior, were related.

Stiles sighed and slipped on the necklace. He really didn't have time for this. Stiles still had a lot to do before he had to get ready for his date with Julian. But once he had some free time, he was determined to get to the bottom of everything.


	7. Chapter 6: The First Date

It was a few hours later that Stiles pulled up in front of Satchmo's in the heart of the wealthier side of Beacon place was a modern looking, white, rectangular, one-story building, with big floor-to-ceiling windows through which Stiles can see the patrons, dressed in designer outfits that cost more than what his father made in a month. He looked down at the outfit he painstakingly chose, a simple gray button-down shirt and dress pants, and felt more than a little out of place.

Stiles fidgeted with his shirt and bit his lip. He was way out of his league and was considering calling this off. But he thought about how hot Julian was and how this was technically his first date ever. He squared his shoulders and forced himself to get out of the car.

Stiles walked inside the restaurant and the hostess lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Uh, I'm supposed to be meeting Julian Vittorio here?"

The hostess nodded. "Yes, he's expecting you. Will you follow me, please?"

Stiles followed the hostess into the main dining room. Stiles could feel the eyes on him as they walked, but he ignored them. They walked over to a table near the back and approached a man sitting there. Stiles stumbled, his heart clenching for one brief crazy moment, sure that it was Derek. From this distance, the resemblance to the werewolf was once again uncanny. All of Derek's harsh words cycled through Stiles's head and he honestly considered turning around and walking out right then and there.

"Are you alright, sir?" The hostess asked, as she took his arm and steadied him. He noticed the people around them looking at him and whispering amongst themselves. Stiles blushed before he regained his balance. "I'm fine. Sorry."

The hostess gave him another look but said nothing as they continued to walk to the table. The closer they got, the more the subtle differences between Julian and Derek became clearer, and Stiles gave a sigh of relief. Julian smiled and stood up to pull the chair out for Stiles. Stiles blushed as he sat down and Julian retook his seat across from him.

The hostess gave them their menus, telling them that their waiter would be there in a moment to take their orders, before she turned and left, leaving Stiles and Julian alone in awkward silence. Stiles didn't know what to say and he didn't want to start babbling.

"Are you alright, Stiles?"

Stiles jerked his head up to see Julian throwing him a concerned look.

"Fine," Stiles stuttered. "I'm just fine."

Julian frowned. "Are you sure?"

Stiles took a deep breath. He was blowing it and that was not in anyway cool. Stiles tried to smile and hope it didn't come out as a grimace. "Sorry about that. I'm just…."

Julian grinned. "You're a little nervous?"

Stiles sighed, and his shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I guess."

Julian leaned forward and took Stiles twitching hands. "It's okay." Julian gazed around the room. "If this place is too much we can just go somewhere else." Julian wryly shook his head. "Can I tell you something?"

Stiles stopped his fidgeting and finally met Julian's eyes. "I was just trying to impress you."

Stiles' eyes went wide. "Really?"

Julian ran his hand uncaringly through his carefully styled hair and shrugged. "Yeah, I did. I really like you and just want you to like me."

Stiles felt a bit of his nervousness fade away and he gave a small smile. "Well, I do….um...like you."

Julian squeezed his hand, "I'm glad because I like you too."

Stiles blushed, and Julian's smile got wider.

"We can still leave if you prefer?" Julian asked.

Stiles shook his head. "No, this is fine." Stiles picked up his menu and started to peruse it. "So, what's good here?"

Julian squeezed his hand again, before finally letting them go to pick up his menu. "Everything, the food is fantastic, I promise you." He winked at Stiles, then looked at his menu.

The rest of the night went much more smoothly after that. Julian was candid about his past and all the places he had been. His hazel eyes practically sparkled as he talked about all the places he had visited. Julian, as it turned out, just came back to Beacon Hills to take his prerequisites during the summer at UC Beacon Hills. He shyly admitted that he had graduated High School early and had decided to backpack through Europe for a year.

Stiles was captivated as Julian talked about all the cities he went to. It was obvious that his favorite places had been Barcelona. Julian's eyes seemed to sparkle, his body becoming more and more animated, his arms moving excitedly as they discussed the old Spanish architecture mixed with the chrome and glass buildings of the more modern skyscrapers that darted the skyline of the old city. He waxed poetic over the food.

"You haven't lived until you had Paella," Julian sighed longingly.

He went to talk about how he spent an entire summer hitting the beaches, and the nights delving into the city's nightlife .

Stiles talked a bit about his life, making sure to give all the supernatural elements of his life a wide berth. He talked about school, and what colleges he had been considering applying for next year. They both geeked out of their their joint love of history and lore. Stiles was delighted to find out that Julian was a comic book geek. They debated heatedly over comic book companies and comic book movies. Julian's favorite comic book title was Green Lantern, while Stiles admitted that Batman was his. They both agreed that Superman was a self-righteous douchebag, though.

"Superman is just too perfect, you know?" Stiles said, his arms flailing animatedly. "I love that Batman is human and I like a man with flaws."

"Do you now?" Julian lifted an eyebrow and smirked. "Nice to know."

Stiles felt his face flush again, and he cursed his fair skin.

Before Stiles knew it they were done with their dinner. Stiles tried to make a token protest against Julian paying for the meal, but Julian told him since he picked the place he would pay.

"You can pick the place next time."

Stiles threw him a dubious look. "You're really confident there is going to be a second date?"

Julian smiled playfully. "Yeah, pretty confident."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Don't count your chickens, dude."

Julian laughed and shook his head. His laughter was deep and throaty, and truthfully, it turned Stiles on more than it should. Stiles crossed his legs and was thankful that the tablecloth covered his groin. By the time Julian paid the bill, Stiles had finally gotten control of himself and they both headed out of the restaurant. Julian's hands lay gently on small of Stiles' back as they walked.

When they got to Stiles' car, they both stood there for a second, the air between them feeling a little bit more awkward. Julian smiled and stepped forward until he backed Stiles up against his Jeep.

Stiles gasped, feeling his face flush, and his heart started to pound rapidly in his chest. Julian leaned forward and brushed his lips against Stiles'. Stiles moaned and melted into the kiss as Julian pressed closer. Their bodies were pressed so tightly together that Stiles could feel the other man's hard muscles underneath his clothes, and the hardness of Julian's cock against his own.

Julian took his face between his two big hands and kissed him harder and deeper. His tongue licked Stiles' lips, and then Stiles moaned, pressing harder against him. Julian slipped his tongue into his mouth, taking Stiles' tongue in a demanding kiss.

As Julian continued to kiss him, his hands slipped from his face, caressed down his neck, and down to his shoulders. He jerked away, and Stiles blinked at him; feeling more than a bit stunned and lightheaded. Eyes wide, Stiles leaned back against the car door and stared at Julian. He was staring at his neck with a strange look on his face.

"What?"

Julian shook his head and looked up to meet Stiles' eyes. He smiled, but even as out of sorts as Stiles was, he could see that it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Nothing, it's fine."

Stiles straightened up and walked over to him. "Are...Are you sure?"

Julian took both of his hands and kissed the palms. "I'm fine." He checked his watch and sighed. "I have to get home. I have school in the morning and it's getting late."

"Okay?" Stiles asked, still feeling slightly light headed and more than a bit confused.

"I had a great time, and I would like to do it again."

Stiles smiled what he feared might be a little dopily. "Yeah, I would like that a lot."

Stiles got into his car, and he watched as Julian walked away towards his own car. Stiles shook his head and started his engine. The whole thing about Julian was weird, but maybe he was reading too much into it. Stiles sighed and drove out of the parking lot. His mind wandered back to that kiss and very much looked forward to his next date with Julian.


	8. Chapter 7: Ring Around The Rosie

_Stiles blinked, the rays of the hot sun on his face blinding him. He put his hand up to shield his eyes and, after a few moments, they adjusted. Stiles was shocked to find himself in a field of familiar-looking red flowers. The sweet scent wafting around was so well-known to him_

 _He smiled as he bent down and picked one of the flowers. He touched the soft petals, a memory of his mother flashing in front of his eyes. Her smiling face was illuminated as she planted the buds of this very flower in their small backyard._

 _Stiles' head snapped up as he suddenly heard the giggle of a child._

 _His eyes darted around the field suspiciously, but there was nobody there. Maybe Stiles had imagined it. But then he heard the sweet voice of a child, singing, "Ring-around-the rosie."_

" _Hello?" he called out. "Who's there?"_

 _But the voice didn't answer; the person just continued to sing. " Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!"_

 _On and on the song continued, repeating on an infinite loop. Annoyed, and more than a little curious, Stiles followed the sound of the singing. He walked, and walked, and walked, and he was starting to get quite frustrated when at last he spied a small figure singing and skipping in a circle._

 _As he got closer, he saw that it was a little girl. Her long, honey brown hair and the full skirt of her yellow sun dress whipped around her as she skipped._

 _Stiles stood there for a moment, a bit stunned, as he watched her skip and sing._

 _"Ring-around-the rosie,_

 _a pocketful of posies,_

 _ashes! Ashes!_

 _We all fall down!"_

 _And then she fell down on the ground. Stiles, worried, stepped forward to help her but froze again as he heard her sweet giggle._

 _She sat up and brushed off her skirt. She paused as she finally caught sight of him. Their eyes met, her similar brown eyes lighting up and her mouth curling into a bright smile. "You're finally here!" She hurriedly got to her feet, her body a blur of color and movement as she ran to hug his legs._

 _"You're here."_

 _"What?" Stiles asked, mouth dropping open._

 _She stepped back to look at him, still grinning. "Finally, you're here."_

* * *

Stiles opened his eyes and realized he was back in his bedroom. The sunlight of the morning sun peeked through the blinds of his window. He sat up and ran a hand over his face. He could still see the grinning face of the little girl, and he could almost still smell the sweet scent of the corn poppies.

"Weird," Stiles said. He shook his head and considered going back to sleep. He picked up his phone and saw it was seven AM. He might as well get up, he decided. Stiles noticed that he had a few messages. The deluge of messages from Scott had slowed down to a trickle, but once again he deleted them without reading his surprise, he found that Lydia had texted him, and he felt a pang of hurt at the thought of her.

If this had been a few weeks ago, Stiles would have been overjoyed at this text. Lydia Martin, Queen B of Beacon Hills High, designed to get off her throne and grace him with her attention. His finger hovered over the accepted button for a long moment before he finally deleted it. That was then, and this was now; he could do better than being Lydia's sloppy seconds.

As if on cue, he got a message from Julian. Stiles grinned as he saw that Julian wanted them to meet up again tonight; this time at the less fancy Java-n-Jive, the town's coffee shop.

Stiles pushed aside the lingering weirdness of the dream, and Lydia's call, and got up and dressed for school. As he headed downstairs Stiles noticed that the door to his father's room was closed, and he could hear the familiar sounds of his father's snores even through the door.

The Sheriff must have just come in and passed out. Shaking his head and quietly making his way into the kitchen, Stiles started to make himself some breakfast when he saw something moving outside so quickly he couldn't quite catch a glimpse of it.

Frowning, Stiles stared for a moment, but he soon shook his head. He poured himself a bowl of cereal and was just about to spoon some into his mouth when there was a thunk of something hitting the glass of his kitchen window.

"The fuck?"

Another thunk and Stiles was abruptly reminded of his strange dream. He shook his head, that was a dream and this was real life. Something else hit the window, and Stiles hurried up the stairs and grabbed his baseball bat made out of silver and mountain ash and came back downstairs.

Another thunk, so hard now that it cracked the window. Stiles narrowed his eyes at it, as he got a sinking feeling.

"What was that?" his father called from upstairs.

Stiles winced at the annoyed tone in his father's voice. "Nothing, Dad, I just dropped…" He looked around for an excuse and settled on his mug on the counter. "A mug. Sorry, Dad."

There was a long beat of silence before his father finally replied. "Okay. Well, be more careful, then."

He heard his father's footsteps and the door close. Stiles sighed in relief. If this was some type of supernatural shenanigan, he would rather have his father not be in the middle of it. Stiles tightened his grip on his bat, his heart beat steadily increasing as he crept carefully outside into the backyard.

Stiles didn't see anything at first, but then there was a crunch of some leaves, and Stiles spun around — his bat aimed high, poised to swing — when he saw Scott standing there throwing him his insulted puppy look.

Stiles slumped, sighing in relief. His panic and fear faded away into annoyance. From his position a few inches away from the mountain ash line Scott had the nerve to pout, crossing his arm petulantly.

"What the actual fuck, dude?" Stiles exclaimed.

"It was the only way to get your attention," Scott insisted.

Stiles dropped his bat to the ground, and hissed, "You're lucky my Dad bought my lie and didn't come down here to find you."

Scott winced but shrugged. "You wouldn't answer my texts or calls."

"Have you thought that maybe I didn't want to talk to you?"

Scott sighed, "Is this because I was invited to Lydia's party? I know you still like her but…"

Stiles put his hand up. "You need to shut your mouth right now."

Scott opened his mouth, but Stiles simply glared harder at him until he snapped his mouth close. "Yeah, it's about Lydia's party. But it's not just that, you went to Lydia's party and you never thought about how that would make me feel. You never even considered inviting me along. You wrote off my feelings for Lydia for being less than your epic star-crossed romance with Allison."

Scott's eyes went wide, as Stiles let the deluge of everything that he had been holding back loose.

Stiles sighed, "Hell, you have had your head up Alison's ass since she came to this town. Even though it was Allison and her family's fault for the majority of all the horrible shit that went down."

"That's not fair!" Scott interjected angrily. "Allison didn't know about Kate. And it was Peter that bit me! "

Stiles snapped, "And it was Kate who made Peter that way. If it wasn't for what she did, Peter would never have bitten you."

Scott's anger deflated like air from a balloon, and he slumped. "I don't know what you want me to say."

Stiles sighed, feeling exhausted all of sudden. "In the end, I'm just tired of being an afterthought to you."

"So where do we stand?" Scott asked, sounding lost and so damn young.

"I don't know, man….I just don't know." Stiles shrugged. "I just need some space."

Scott and Stiles' eyes met. They both stood there awkwardly in Stiles' backyard for a long time before Scott finally slumped and nodded. And without saying another word, Scott turned around and walked away, leaving Stiles alone with his tumultuous thoughts.


	9. Chapter 8: Face The Music

A/N: Sorry guys that I have been absent on here. I have been busy, and I hadn't had the time to update on this site. I updated all on Ao3, but not here and for that I'm sorry. As a way to say I'm sorry, I'm posting all the chapters I missed all once. I think over four thousand words or so. Enjoy!

* * *

All the joy that Stiles felt about his date with Julian seemed to be eclipsed by his fight with Scott. It hurt to have to say that to his best friend, his brother, but it all had been bubbling up inside of him and he just couldn't take it anymore.

For the rest of the morning, Stiles was uncharacteristically silent and withdrawn..He spent the rest of the day in his room, the fight with Scott replaying on alike a loop in his head. Stiles couldn't help but feelingto feel guilty, though;, Scott and Stiles almost never really fought—not until now.

Later that afternoon, Stiles was lyinglaying on the bed across his bed listening to the most emo music he could find on his iPpod. He almost had a heart attack when he abruptly felt a tap on his shoulder. He was halfway to grabbing his bat that was hidden under his bed when he realized it was his father.

The SheriffHis father threw him a strange look., "You are okay there, son?"

Stiles tried to grin, but he knew it came out more like grimace.

The man frowned, and sat down on the bed next to Stiles. "What's wrong?" He glared at Stiles as the boy opened his mouth. "Don't tell me nothing is wrong."

"It's Scott."

The Sheriff sighed. "I did notice that he hasn't been by in a while."

Stiles sat up and threw his father an incredulous look. How had he known?

"I didn't get this badge by my pretty face,"his father said dryly, rolling his eyes.

Stiles looked away. "Uh, sorry."

"Although, I did talk to Melissa..."

Stiles just shook his head, thinking about all the stuff his father didn't know and was relieved that Melissa didn't let anything slip. "I wish I could be surprised."

"What's going on between you two?"

Stiles hesitated, thinking that he couldn't explain the werewolves stuff, but he was tired of pretending that everything was okay. "You know how Scott is suddenly co-captain?"

"Yeah?"

Stiles took a deep breath. "Well, apparently since he has Allison and is co-captain he is a lot more popular…"

The Sheriff narrowed his eyes, "And?"

Stiles sighed. "It looks like he just doesn't have time for a loser like me anymore."

"Did he say that?" The Sheriff stood up, and Stiles grabbed his father's arm to stop him.

"No, Dad. He didn't say it." Stiles sighed again, "But he really didn't really need to, you know."

The Sheriff slumped and gave Stiles a lost look. "I would have never thought that Scott would do that to you. You have been practically attached at the hip since birth."

Stiles looked away, muttering "I guess people just grow apart sometimes."

The Sheriff put his hand on Stiles' shoulder. "Don't give up on Scott just yet, son. He'll get his act together sooner or later."

Stiles looked up, and for a moment and he felt once again overwhelmed by his emotions. "Thanks, Dad."

The Sheriff stood up and rubbed his son's head. Stiles snorted, and batted his father's hands away. "Stop that."

"Well, I'm off to work."

"Aren't you off tomorrow?"

The Sheriff shook his head, "I don't think anyone is going to get a day off until we find who killed that co-ed."

"Yeah, how is that going?" Stiles asked, innocently. He thought about the monster that attacked him and then the body turning up. There wasn't any hard evidence that the two were linked but he had a hunch that told him otherwise.

"Stiles."

"I know," Stiles threw up his hands. "But you can't fault me for being curious."

The Sheriff shook his head wryly. "Just to get to you shut up, the only thing I'm going to tell you is that we haven't found anything yet."

Stiles wasn't shocked, but that bit of information did confirm his hunch a tiny bit.

"I'll probably won't be back again until Morning again," said the Sheriff with a sigh.

The Sheriff patted Stiles on the back again and turned and walked out of the room. Stiles sat there and listened as his father left the house, got into his car, and drove away. The boy slumped back down on the bed and groaned. This was such a shit day. Then he thought about Julian. Honestly, Stiles wasn't the greatest company right now, but secretly he was afraid that Julian would stop being interested in him, and Stiles was becoming addicted to the feeling of finally being wanted. His mind turned back to Lacey Schultz, and was immediately flooded with guilt. Here he was moping when Lacey's parents were grieving for their dead daughter, when he probably could have found the killer and stopped them from hurting someone else.

Stiles checked his watch, and it was around a quarter to five. He still had plenty of time to head to the library and see if he could find something before his second date with Julian. Stiles put on his shoes, packed his bag, and left.

Stiles drove the relatively short drive to the Beacon Hills Public Library. He made sure to avoid the Animal Clinic, his fight with Scott still fresh in his mind. He also didn't want to see anybody else from the pack just yet. He finally made it to the library, pulling up with a bittersweet smile. His mother had been Head Librarian until she got finally got too sick to work. Stiles took out his locket and touched the engraving of the strange symbol on it.

He had been actively trying not to think about his mother, and the thought that she could have been hiding that she was magic. He was curious, but he was afraid that digging further into what the history of the locket was and the strange phenomena that happened back in Harris's class would mean confirming that his mother had kept things from him. And that Stiles was magic. It was the only explanation for the weirdness, but the thought that she kept this part of herself from him hurt.

Stiles shook his head and sighed. What was with him and brooding today? Before he knew it he would be wearing leather jackets just like Sour Wolf. He snorted, grabbed his things, and finally got out of the car.

He waved to the new Head Librarian, Mr. Bailey. He knew exactly where to go. Stiles had spent many a day here and at the Station, and he knew both like the back of his hand. He went over to the history and folklore section and started to immediately pull out books that were interesting.

Stiles precariously balanced his stack of books and his things as he walked over to the nearest empty table. He carefully placed everything on the table and immediately got to work.

* * *

Stiles skimmed through the books, taking notes and cross referencing them against his notes from previous research sessions. Yet, as he made his way through his stack of books, he began to feel more and more disappointed. And just like last time, there were too many characteristics that fit too many different creatures to be helpful.

He slammed the cover of the old tome loudly in frustration, and got glared at by the woman studying at the table next to him. Stiles mouthed, 'Sorry,' before turning away. He looked at the time, and was surprised to see how much time had passed. It was almost time for his date with Julian.

All of this time, and he hadn't gotten anywhere. He sighed inwardly in frustration. This was basically a waste of time. He stacked his books and carried them back to the return cart, and was about to stack them on the small stack of books already on it when he spotted an interesting book on the top of the pile. He set his stack down on the floor, and picked up the book.

The title was in Polish, but due to his mother teaching him a few words as a child, he could make out a few words such as "demons" and "creatures". Stiles picked up the book, and started to flip through the pages but, as expected, he could only make out a few words here and there.

He was wasting time, and if he didn't get a move on he was going to be late. He was about to close the book when he spotted it. The same cracked face, and the same terrifying black eyes and fangs.

Stiles felt like fist pumping, but he was in the library and he didn't want Mr. Bailey to come over and give him his trademark _I'm-disappointed-in-you-and-in-all-of-your-life-choices_ Stare of Doom. He picked up the book and finally put the book back in the stack.

Stiles packed up his stuff and the book and headed to the checkout counter. He exchanged a few pleasantries and caught up on the local gossip. Mr. Bailey knew everything about everyone in Beacon Hills and unfortunately, much like Stiles himself, when you got him started talking he never stopped.

Stiles managed to check out his book, and get out of there by promising to stop by later for another chat. With a relieved sigh, Stiles got into his car and headed out of the parking lot towards Java-in-Jive, which was on the other side of town.

Stiles partly wished that he hadn't promised to meet Julian, because wanted to delve into this book. Yes, it was in Polish, but thankfully he had a few online contacts that happened to speak fluent Polish and would't ask any hard questions.

He drove out of the main part of the town, nearing the preserve when he heard a loud, high-pitched scream. Startled, he slammed his foot hard on his break. He almost slammed his head into the steering wheel.

Stiles gripped his steering wheel with a white knuckled grip, heart suddenly pounding in his chest. Maybe he should just leave and go home. A flash of the monster he came across in the woods flashed through his mind. He quickly made a call to 911, as he heard another scream. Stiles hurried out the car, and rounded the back to open his trunk and find his backup baseball bat. He grabbed it and headed out into the woods, praying he would come out of this alive and intact.


	10. Chapter 9: Crossroads

Stiles ran, the air whipping around him, the tree branches snagging against his clothing. He gripped his bat harder, his feet following the direction of the scream until he breached another copse of trees and arrived in a clearing.

"Danny!" he shouted as he saw The Monster crouched over a scared looking Lydia, who was screaming, and the prone form of Danny Mahealani. The creature, who he found just as terrifying as he did a week ago, snapped its head to look at Stiles. It gave a huge sniff of air and grinned before it spun around on its clawed feet and ran away.

Lydia screamed that eerie high pitched scream again and, shaking his head, Stiles turned and ran over to the two.

"Lydia, what happened?" he asked her, but she couldn't stop screaming.

"Lydia!" he demanded louder, shaking her this time. Her screams cut off abruptly and she finally looked up at him. Her usual intelligent green eyes were glazed over. It was as Lydia was staring right through to him and into his very soul.

"Lydia?" he asked quietly.

Lydia stared at him with those eerie green eyes and he shivered. She took his hand, and he gasped as he felt something hot and sharp like an electrical current shot through him. Then she was grabbed Danny's hand tightly within her own and that feeling doubled and tripled inside of him. His vision began to white out as Stiles suddenly felt that his whole entire body was on fire. The pain was overwhelming, and for a long moment, all he knew was the pain inside of him, the flame stinging every inch of his skin and every bit of his internal organs.

And then suddenly the pain was gone, and Stiles felt limp as everything faded into black.

* * *

 _It was the song again. The singing was coming from all around him. The voice was so sweet and high, practically bubbling over with joy._

 _"Ring around the rosie," sang the familiar voice. "Pocket full posies…"_

 _Stiles opened his eyes, the bright sun blinding him for a moment before his eyes focused on the blur of long dark hair and red skirts as she circled around him, skipping all the while._

 _"Ashes, ashes.." she continued to sing. "We all fall down."_

 _And she suddenly collapsed on the floor like a puppet with its strings cut._

 _Panic rising, Stiles found himself running over to the girl. He bent down, his hand reaching to check if she was still breathing. He jumped when he felt her hand clamp down on his. He looked up to meet her smiling face._

 _"That wasn't funny," Stiles snapped._

 _"It was a little funny", the girl giggled. She sat up and started to brush the dirt off her dress._

 _He remembered Danny and Lydia all alone in the forest and he swallowed, bile rising in his throat as he stood up."I've got to go."_

 _He looked around the meadow, but he couldn't see a visible path out. He felt a tug on his hand and he looked at the girl, to see her smile had faded away into a look of grim determination. "You can save him."_

 _Stiles eyes went wide. "What?"_

 _"Ow, you're hurting me." Stiles blinked and looked down at his hands which were grasping her hand in a tight, vice-like grip. He quickly dropped her hand and backed up. "Sorry." He ran his hand over his head. "But I can save Danny? How?"_

 _She stood up and walked over to him. "You must unlock the power inside of yourself. It's the only way." The little girl smiled sadly at him. "But there will be consequences if you do this. If you succeed, there is no going back."_

 _Stiles was no stranger to facing hard choices or dealing with the consequences coming from them. But he couldn't quite help but feel the dread caused by the little girl's words curling inside of his stomach. He turned to look at her and he had a million questions he wanted to ask her. However, Danny could be dead now. And no, he wasn't really close to Danny, but he had always been nice to him. Always stopped Jackson from taking his bullying too far. He helped Stiles with tracking Peter, and he wouldn't let anyone else die on his watch._

 _"Okay, what do I have to do?"_

 _The little girl took his hand and brought him to the middle of the clearing. She directed him to sit down. "Close your eyes."_

 _Stiles did as she said._

 _"Now, take a deep breath and clear your mind."_

 _Stiles tried to do that, but he couldn't concentrate; there were too many thoughts going on in his head. Every time he would try to push his thoughts away, he kept worrying about Danny and Lydia...and about the monster that attacked them._

 _"Concentrate!" she snapped._

 _"I'm trying," Stiles snapped back, but then he felt a bit guilty. He sighed. "Sorry."_

 _The girl waved him at him. "It's okay," she shrugged._

 _"So, concentrate?"_

 _The girl nodded, and Stiles closed his eyes. He could do this. His friends were depending on him._

 _It took him longer than he would like to admit. His ADHD and his worry over his friends often got in the way. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he was able to clear his mind. He told the girl so, and he could distantly hear the satisfaction in the girl's voice._

 _"Now visualize a ball of energy just below your breastbone," she instructed, her voice now quiet and calm. "Can you see it, Stiles?"_

 _He nodded; it was a small ball of pulsating energy that resembled a ball of yarn, but instead of yarn it was lines of neon green energy. Little threads were rolled together to make a ball, constricting and contracting in a constant rhythm._

 _"Now take one of the strings of the ball and imagine yourself pulling a thread out." It took him three tries to be able to catch and pull the threads away._

" _Now imagine Danny and Lydia,and imagine your thread sinking into their bodies."_

 _He did, that was the easiest thing to do because Danny and Lydia were on his mind even now. Suddenly, he felt something tug on the threads._

 _"Don't lose the threads," the girl ordered. Stiles was only just barely capable of keeping ahold of the thread which tried to go back into the main ball of energy. He imagined grabbing them and holding them still._

 _"Very good," she said. "Now imagine your energy pouring slowly and gradually through the threads into your friends."_

 _Stiles did as he was told, and at first, he was easily directing the energy into his friends. He could practically feel Danny healing as the neon green energy pulsated and moved through the thread._

 _Then suddenly there was a blue string wrapping around his. The blue thread's energy combining with his own. The energy was draining faster and faster from his body and he began to feel lightheaded and dizzy._

" _Stiles!" shouted the girl. "Stiles, stop!"_

 _But he couldn't stop, the energy started to drain away from him. He felt exhausted now like he hadn't slept in days. He opened his eyes and his vision was blurry.. Stiles could barely make out the vague shape of the little girl._

 _"You have to disconnect, Stiles," The little girl said, sounding terrified now. "Stiles."_

 _And then as suddenly as the transfer of energy started, it stopped. He blinked up at the little girl. "What?"_

 _Before Stiles could hear the little girl's answer, the world once again faded into darkness._

* * *

He awoke gradually. He could hear a steady beat of something in the background. Stiles tried to open his eyes, but it was like trying to lift boulders instead of his eyelids.

Stiles could hear voices very distantly in the background. He tried to make sense of it but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't.

And before long, he ended up falling asleep.

The next time he awoke, things were a little better. He finally pried his eyes open a smidge. At first, he was able to make out only blurred shapes, but then his vision adjusted enough to make out that he was in a hospital room.

And it was father sitting slumped, asleep, in very uncomfortable chair besides him.

'How did I get here?' he thought to himself. He tried to recall the last thing he remembered, but it was like his memory was just out of reach.

He tried to sit up, but it was as if a hundred pound elephant was sitting on his chest. Giving a frustrated sigh, he slumped back onto the bed.

He turned to look at his father and immediately felt a rush of guilt wash over him. The Sheriff seemed like he had aged years since he last remembered seeing him. There were dark circles under his eyes that told of more than a few sleepless nights, and the wrinkles in his tan skin were definitely more prominent.

Stiles strained to reach out and touch his father, but he could only touch the edge of his father's leg. It was enough, though. The man moved and groaned as woke up. He yawned and sat up, reaching to rub the crick in his back. He blinked open his eyes and shot up out of his seat. "Stiles?"

"Hi," Stiles said, his voice rough from the lack of use.

The Sheriff gave a long sigh of relief, and hugged him. "Jesus, Stiles."

Stiles inwardly winced at the emotion in his father's voice, and he felt even guiltier. "S..sorry."

The Sheriff sat back and ran his hand through his hair. "Don't you ever…" He swallowed, eyes suspiciously wet. "Don't you ever do that to me, again."

"Sorry."

The Sheriff sighed, and poured him a cup of water and made him slowly sip. "We got an anonymous tip that there were some kids hurt in the middle of the woods. And you were all so still."

Stiles eyes went wide, and he grabbed on to his father as the memories of the night before slammed back in his head. A vision of Danny laying in a pool of blood flashed by with Lydia's screaming echoing in his ears.

"Are you alright, son?" The Sheriff asked, worried. "Do I need to get the doctor?"

Stiles shook his head. "No, are Lydia and Danny..."

"They're fine." The Sheriff said, "They woke up a few days ago."

Stiles slumped back on the bed, relief flooding through him. But he was still confused. "What do you mean, woke up?"

"They were in a coma for a few days, Stiles," The Sheriff told him, shaking his head. "You're the last one to wake up."

Stiles's father narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "So are you going to tell me what happened, Stiles? What were you doing in the woods that night?"

Stiles opened his mouth, closed it, and knew he was screwed because how could he explain about the creature and the magic and the dreams? And by the determined look on his father's face, a lie wasn't going to cut it.

Stiles inwardly groaned. He was well and truly fucked.


	11. Chapter 10: Putting The Pieces Together

"Well?" The Sheriff's face was hard and determined.

Stiles sighed and looked down. "I want to tell you, Dad. You don't know how much..."

The Sheriff shook his head. "Stiles, who are you protecting? Scott? Hale?" The Sheriff glared down at him. "This is not just about you, more and more people are in danger—"

"I know, Dad!" Stiles shouted, frustration welling up inside of him as he thought about Scott, the Pack, Lydia, and now Danny being dragged into this mess. He knew he was only one skinny teenage boy, but he hated this helplessness.

"Is everything alright in here?" asked one of the nurses, coming into the room.

"Everything is fine and dandy," Stiles said.

The Sheriff glared down at his son, but that expression faded into his usual look of disappointment. He looked down at his watch and sighed. "I've got to go, son or I'm going to be late for my shift." He pointed a finger at Stiles. "But this is not over, do you hear?"

Stiles felt his heart speed up, dread pooling in his stomach. "Okay, Dad."

The Sheriff shook his head again and walked out of the door, leaving him alone with the nurse. As she checked his vitals Stiles wondered for the millionth time if he was doing the right thing by keeping his father in the dark.

* * *

Stiles was in the hospital for another full day His father came by once more before his release, and despite their currently strained relationship, Scott came by as well. The hour he spent there was excruciatingly awkward, but Stiles had to admit that he was secretly glad that their relationship wasn't so broken that Scott wouldn't visit him.

Stiles spent the rest of the day going slowly insane because he had nothing to do and he wasn't on his Adderall. He wanted to speak to Danny and Lydia; he was desperate to find out what had happened, desperate for his cell phone and his laptop.

Another reason he was losing it was because he hated hospitals. It reminded him too much of the time that he had spent every spare moment he could here while his mother was slowly dying from a terminal disease.

He slept when his exhaustion became too much to ignore and watched horrible television. By the next morning, Stiles was practically jumping out of his skin to get out of there. His father would be off his shift at any moment and he would bring Stiles clothes and he could finally get out.

However, to his surprise, Melissa walked in, out of her usual uniform of blue scrubs, with a wheelchair and an overnight bag.

"Hey, kiddo, you ready to go?"

Stiles nodded earnestly, "Hell yea—um—" He coughed. "Yes, I'm ready to go." He blinked, "Where is Dad?"

Melissa lifted an eyebrow, the corners of her mouth quirking up into a smirk. Stiles got out of bed and walked over to her to take the bag.

"You get dressed, and I'll make sure to sign your release forms."

Stiles was lucky that Melissa had medical power of attorney over him when he was eight because he would have had to wait until his father got off his shift. God knows, with the chaos over the co-ed murder and the monster in the woods, it would be a while.

Stiles hurried into the bathroom and quickly got dressed in his favorite Star Wars T-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. He pulled on his beloved flannel button-down shirt and headed out of the room, bag in hand, just as Melissa walked back inside.

"Let's blow this popsicle stand!"

Melissa rolled her eyes and patted the wheelchair.

Stiles side-eyed the wheelchair and threw Mel a look. "Uh, I can just walk out of here."

"No way, Stiles. You know the rules."

Stiles sighed and sat down in the wheelchair. Melissa patted him on the shoulder. "Good boy."

* * *

Stiles waved to Melissa as she drove away. He opened his door and walked inside. Stiles took a deep breath and felt a huge sense of relief to finally be home. Twenty-four hours stuck in a hospital was way too long, in his opinion. He walked into the living room, and a big grin came across his face as he spotted his phone lying on the counter with a sticky note on it.

Found this in the woods, thought that you would want it back

Stiles quickly powered up the phone. There was a barrage of worried messages from Julian. He quickly typed a message to Julian and they agreed to meet the next day. Stiles continued to scroll and found that there were some messages and missed calls from Lydia, and then Danny? And he might be mistaken, but they were from just before the attack.

He opened the messages from Lydia.

I need to talk to you.

I know that you are mad at me, but we really need to talk.

Stiles, pick up your goddamn phone.

Why has she had been so desperate to see him that night? Hell, he still didn't know why she was in the woods at all. Hoping that he might get some clarity to this situation, he opened Danny's one text.

Lydia has gone crazy, she keeps calling your name.

What was the hell going on that night? Why were Lydia and Danny in the woods in the first place? Stiles shook his head and decided that the only way he was going to know was to sit down and talk with them. Before he could change his mind he quickly posted a text hoping to meet with them today at his house. To his surprise, both of them promptly replied and made plans to meet them there in half an hour.

Stiles got up and looked around the house. It hadn't been cleaned since the other night and it was a mess. The little bit of him that still had feelings for Lydia cringed, because there was no way he was going to meet her with the house looking like this.

* * *

The doorbell rang and Stiles quickly shoved a bit of trash under the sofa. He dusted himself off and made his way to the door. He pasted a smile on his face and opened the door.

"Hi, guys thank you—" The smile quickly faded from his face as he took in the haggard and tired faces of his friends. Lydia's appearance especially startled him; she was far from the picture-perfect Queen B. Her strawberry-blonde hair was in a sloppy ponytail, and she was dressed in a simple oversized sweatshirt and jeans.

He turned to Danny who had huge dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. It looks like he might collapse any moment and Stiles had to wonder what the hell his doctor was thinking to let him out of the hospital like that.

"What—Are you okay?" He cringed at his stupid question.

Danny threw a look at Lydia, who just walked over to Stiles and wrapped her arms around him. Bewildered, he glanced at Danny, and he could have sworn he saw a look of longing flash across his face for a second before it disappeared. He shrugged. "I don't know, she's been acting strange since the party."

Stiles wrapped his arms around her and hugged Lydia back, and to his surprise, he didn't feel the familiar jolt of attraction that he thought he would be feeling in this type of situation. He instead felt a deep affection and warmth towards her, and something else that he couldn't quite define yet, not quite like the deep love he once felt for her.

After a moment Danny coughed, and Stiles stepped away feeling awkward all of a sudden. Lydia Martin had just hugged him for god's sakes. "Uh...why don't you guys come in?"

Stiles turned away and lead them to the living room. He took a seat on the sofa. Surprising him once again, they sat on either side of him, so close that they were practically sandwiched together. He squeaked and threw them both freaked-out looks. Did they need to sit this close to him? There was an empty chair right there. Yet, there was a part of him that told him that was too much space between them as it was. What the hell?

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Just go with it, Stiles," she demanded, her no-nonsense tone of voice brooking no argument.

"O-okay."

"Now tell us everything." Lydia narrowed her green eyes. "And I do mean everything, no more of your half-truths."

"Yeah, what she said," Danny added, nodding his head.

Stiles opened his mouth and then snapped it closed, because where to start? The tale was long and convoluted and it basically resembled some high school drama on the CW.

"Stiles," Lydia warned.

"Okay, okay!" Stiles flailed his arms, almost hitting Lydia in the nose and Danny in the chest. "Sorry," he muttered. Stiles put his hands down sheepishly and took a deep breath. "It started with Kate Argent burning down the Hale House…"

Stiles left almost nothing out, except for his suspicions about Derek's romantic past with Kate. That part wasn't his story to tell. Stiles told them all that had happened with the fire; Peter waking up from his coma and his murder-revenge scheme that Lydia ended up getting in the middle of, Derek killing Peter, and becoming the Alpha.

Lydia glared down at her hands as they tightened into fists at the mention of Peter. Without any conscious thought, Stiles found himself putting an arm around her and hugging her close to him. To his utter surprise, she didn't struggle or stiffen; she just relaxed in his arms. The tension in her body practically melted away. She snuffled at the curve of his neck.

Danny put his hand on top of Stiles' and squeezed, and it weirded him out, being touched by these two people who wouldn't admit to even know him a few weeks ago, but this felt...right, somehow. He shook his head and continued his story.

He talked about Derek turning the current pack and Scott's refusal to join the pack. He went on to describe the death of Allison's mom, and Allison turning batshit insane and trying to kill the pack. He spoke of Matt, Gerard, Jackson and the whole Kaima mess, Gerard dying, and Peter's resurrection.

And finally, he informed them of their dealings with the Alpha Pack, Scott eventually joining the pack, and then what happened over the last several weeks with being attacked by the monster that attacked him in the woods, and then later being kicked out of the pack,

The sun was just beginning to set as Stiles finally told them about the co-ed Lacey, and how he suspected the monster had killed her. He told them about finding them in the woods.

He even told them about his dreams of the little girl, and finding the box with the weird symbol on it and finding the necklace inside. Then he told them about his car breaking down on his way back from the library and hearing Lydia's scream.

"You know everything after that." He got up and stretched. He frowned. "I think my ass went to sleep."

Danny snickered, and Lydia rolled her eyes.

Stiles turned to them. "I'm going to get a Coke, do you guys want anything?"

Both of them shook their heads. Stiles sighed and walked into the kitchen and grabbed a Coke. He returned and threw the empty chair a thoughtful look before he shook his head and sat back down in between Lydia and Danny. He opened the can and took a sip. He turned to Lydia and tilted his head. "Now, it's your turn."

Lydia lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

Stiles sighed. "What were you guys doing in the woods that night?"

Danny threw Lydia a look that Stiles couldn't quite decipher. "Fair is fair, Lyds," Danny chided her. Lydia rolled her eyes, and Danny gave her a glare before he turned to Stiles. "It all started the night of Taylor Dalton's party. Lydia had been acting strangely all night, all spaced out and quiet." He threw her another look. "I thought that maybe she'd been taking some of the drugs that had been passed around." He shrugged. "It's Taylor, and he always has drugs at his parties."

Lydia sniffed disdainfully. "As if I would ever take any drugs from Taylor or his cronies."

Danny shook his head and continued. "Then she started to calling you over and over again, which I thought was weird because—"

"—Because she was pretending that I wasn't alive," Stiles finished.

Lydia froze and turned to Stiles, a pained and guilty look on her face. "Stiles—"

Stiles interrupted, putting his soda down on the coffee table. He turned to her. "I'm not going to pretend that it didn't hurt; it did. A lot." He took a deep breath. "But I wasn't fair to you, too. I should have told you what was going on back when Peter attacked you at the dance."

Lydia grabbed his hand and squeezed. "I'm s—" she stuttered, then she seemed to steel herself and looked right into his eyes. "I"m sorry."

"Me too."

He turned back to Danny "I'm sorry, too. I should have told you after Jackson left."

"I accept your apology." Danny smiled, and shook his head. "Now where was I? I went to the restroom, and when I came back, she was gone. I looked all over the party for her, and finally one of Taylor's buddies told me that she was headed towards the woods. I tried calling and texting her, but Lydia wouldn't answer and I went into the woods to look for her. I eventually caught up to her, but before I could get her back to the party we were attacked by this ugly looking thing. And that is the last thing I remembered. "

Stiles turned to Lydia. "Why did you go into the woods?"

Lydia shrugged, "I don't know. Honestly, my whole memory of that night is a blur. I just remember bits and pieces of it."

They all sat there in silence for a long moment, all lost in their own thoughts before Danny sighed, and said, "So what do we do, now?"

"I'm still searching for clues about what this monster is and how to kill it. I got a few clues at the library, though."

"Okay, then we are helping," Lydia announced. Stiles opened his mouth to argue because he knew first-hand how dangerous it was to be a human in the supernatural world. He didn't want to see anyone else get hurt, or hell, even killed. Before he could say anything, Lydia cut him off

"No arguments." She glared at him. "We're in this whether you like it or not."

Danny nodded, his eyes filled with steely determination. "I'm in. Besides, I can't pretend that this world—" he waved to encompass the room. "—doesn't exist. My best friend was a lizard monster for crying out loud. I'm in."

"Fine," Stiles groaned. Yet honestly, there was a part of him that was relieved that he wasn't in this alone anymore.


	12. Chapter 11: Amalgamation

**Author's Note:** So I'm back! With a new chapter, quicker than I originally thought I would. I really want to take this time to thank AshDustQueen for taking this especially hard chapter and whipping into shape. This chapter would have sucked without her and I'm so grateful. I want to thank you all for commenting, favoriting, and reviewing this story. Your enthusiasm keeps me going. So I yammered on long enough, please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

It was not too long after Stiles' explanation of the events leading up to the present that Lydia and Danny made their excuses and left with promises to meet at the library early the next morning. Stiles thought about making dinner, however, he was exhausted, both emotionally and physically.

Instead of something more elaborate, Stiles quickly made and ate a sandwich before heading upstairs. He got into his pajamas and climbed into bed. He pondered all that had happened, including the attack, and finally spilling the beans to Lydia and Danny. While he considered everything, he gently drifted off to sleep.

Stiles opened his eyes and discovered that he had returned to the place he had been dreaming about, right where he had left off. The girl sat across from him, legs crossed, and a strange, pensive look on her face. Her eyes were shut. It was weird to see the contrast between her previously exuberant self, and her current, still state of being.

As he watched, the girl's eyes snapped open, and her lips stretched into a smile. "Nice to see you again, Stiles." She cocked her head. "I really wasn't expecting you back so soon."

"What happened?" Stiles asked. "I mean, the last time I was here—"

"—You made a choice to save your friends," the little girl shrugged. "And that comes with consequences."

Stiles shivered at her ominous tone. "What consequences?"

The small child stared at him for a long time, her sight once again seems as if it was piercing through his body to the very core of him. "You three are joined now."

Stiles frowned. "What?"

The girl just smiled an eerie yet enigmatic smile. "You'll figure it out for yourself soon enough."

Stiles rolled his eyes. 'Why does everyone in the supernatural world with an even a little bit of knowledge have to speak in freaking riddles, he thought. Is it to be cool, or something?

The little girl just giggled at his actions, her eyes bright with mischief.

Then, to his own surprise, Stiles found himself suddenly blurting out a question. "What's your name?"

The girl froze, a strange look crossing her face before it was shoved behind a neutral mask. "You can call me Halina."

For some reason, that name sounded familiar, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't think of a reason why.

Stiles shook his head, refocusing. "So...Halina. Do you have anything else to tell or teach me?"

Halina just gave him another creepy smile. "Your energy levels are not back to where they need to be do anything constructive."

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"

She smiled faded into a stern look. "It can seriously hurt you if we try any magic right now, Stiles."

"So why exactly am I here?"

Halina shook her head. "To be completely honest, I have no idea how you have the strength to travel here. That should be impossible so soon after what you just went through."

"Then how?"

Halina beamed up at him. "You are more powerful than I even I thought."

Stiles' mouth dropped open, his eyes going wide. "Seriously? Me?"

After all the times Stiles had been called useless because he was a powerless human, it was surreal that he might have powerful magic. Stiles shook his head. But again this whole thing is taking place in MY Dreams so this is basically surreal city he thought.

"So what do I do now?" Stiles said, as crossed his arms and glared down at her.

Halina's smile seemed to grow impossibly brighter. She patted him on the knee. "Now, you wake up, Stiles."

* * *

Stiles groaned as his phone ring and, without opening his eyes, he flipped his hand around to find it. Once he had grasped it he opened his eyes and, seeing that it was Lydia, he quickly answered it.

"Where the hell are you?" Lydia demanded. "You were supposed to meet us thirty minutes ago."

Stiles checked the time on his phone and groaned. "Sorry, sorry. I'll be there in fifteen."

"You better be," she threatened, before hanging up. Stiles scrambled out of bed, quickly threw on his clothes, packed up his laptop and the rest of his things., He hurried downstairs and headed towards the door.

"Stiles." He whipped around to see that his father was sitting on the couch. He winced inwardly as he thought about their last conversation. Stiles had completely forgotten about it with the whole Lydia and Danny thing overshadowing everything else.

"Uh, hi Dad." He waved awkwardly. "How's it going?"

"Where are you going?" The Sheriff said, raising an eyebrow. "You just got out of the hospital yesterday."

Stiles rubbed the back of his head and shrugged. "I was supposed to meet Lydia and Danny at the library?"

His father stood up and walked over to him and crossed his arms, wrinkling his brow "Since when have you been on speaking terms with Lydia Martin and Danny Mahealani?"

"They came over yesterday, to thank me, I guess," Stiles said, scrambling for the right words. He didn't want to completely lie to his father, especially after the Sheriff had confronted him back at the hospital, so he stuck mostly to the truth. "And I guess we...bonded?" He shrugged. "Lydia wanted me to help her study for an upcoming math competition and Danny just decided to tag along."

His father's eyebrow rose. "Seriously?"The Sheriff ran a hand over his head and sighed. "I guess that would be okay, but Stiles…" The Sheriff threw him a concerned look. "I really don't want you driving, you just came out of a coma for god sakes. And besides, with this killer on the loose, I really don't think you should be out. Especially after what happened in the woods." His dad gave him a pointed look.

"Come on, Dad. It's not like I'm going to party or something!" Stiles whined. "I'm just going out to the library."

The Sheriff fidgeted as he thought it over. "Stiles…"

"Please, Dad, I feel perfectly fine and the library is just a few miles away."

"Fine." The Sheriff gave a resigned sigh. "You can go." Stiles grinned excitedly at his father. He opened his mouth to respond. "But with a few conditions," the Sheriff cut him off, raising a hand. "First of all, I want your butt back in this house no later than sundown. I will be working tonight, but I will be sending my deputies to patrol around here so I will know if your car is not parked in the driveway."

"Dad, it's summer…" Stiles wasn't happy at all, what about his date with Julian? He had thought about mentioning Julian for a while now, but their relationship was so new. And his father would not at all be happy about the age difference, and with him being the Sheriff of Beacon County he would have no problem pressing charges against Julian for shit like statutory rape or something. Despite the fact that they had only kissed once.

The Sheriff glared at him, and Stiles snapped his mouth close. "I also want you to text me every hour and to tell me you're okay."

Stiles wanted to whine about how unfair this was, but this was real to expected after everything that had happened. "Okay."

The Sheriff crossed his arms and glared down at his son. "And I haven't forgotten about the talk we're supposed to be having, not by a long shot," The Sheriff said, shaking his head. "But right now, I don't have the time. However we will be having that talk, you understand me?"

Stiles swallowed and nodded. "O-Okay."

The Sheriff shook his head and smiled wryly at Stiles. "Now get out of here. You don't want to keep Lydia waiting." He shooed him towards the front door and headed back to the living room.

Stiles grabbed his things and headed out the door. He knew that he got off relatively easy, and he was thankful his father was being more gracious than he thought he would have been in the same situation.

"You're late," Lydia said, glaring at him.

Stiles dropped his bag on the table. He looked around the room that Lydia had reserved for them. "My Dad held me up. You know he's worried and all that," he sighed. Then he held up the cardboard coffee carrier of Starbucks coffee. "But I bought refreshments. Am I forgiven?"

Lydia opened her mouth to talk but Danny stood and quickly rounded the table to take a coffee with his name scribbled on it. He took a sip and smiled at Stiles. He ruffled Stiles' hair playfully, and although Stiles was a bit annoyed, he still found himself rubbing his head against Danny's palm.

"Hey, dude," Stiles nodded to Danny.

"Thanks," Danny said before he turned around and made his way to the spot on the other side of Lydia. He sat down opened took a book off the top of the stack of books.

Lydia whirled around to glare at Danny, who just smiled at her unrepentantly. She finally rolled her eyes and snatched the coffee with her name on it. "There better be slim milk in this, Stilinski."

"Yep, skim milk, no-foam latte, hotter than the sun."

Lydia's eyebrows rose as she took a sip of her coffee. "How?"

Stiles looked away and blushed. "Uh, I have my ways."

Lydia just shook her head and Stiles finally sat down across from her.

"Okay, so what did I miss?"

Lydia picked up a legal pad that was sitting on top of an open book. "I took notes on everything that you said yesterday." She flipped her hair. "It helps to have an eidetic memory."

Stiles stared at her incredulously. "You wrote down everything I said?"

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Of course I did; this would it make easier for me to cross reference everything." She sighed. "We are here to research, after all."

She gestured to the tall stacks of books beside her. "I have already started."

He frowned at the distance between him and Lydia and scooted closer. He was expecting for her to yell at him, but she said nothing. Once again, Stiles couldn't help but notice the lack of sexual attraction he felt for Lydia. Six months ago, his boner would be practically trying to burst out of his pants from being so close to her. But to his continued surprise, he still only felt a bone-deep comfort by being so close to Lydia.

"Yeah, we haven't found anything yet, though," Danny sighed, breaking Stiles out o his wayward thoughts. "It's going to be a long day."

Lydia nodded in agreement. Then she turned, putting her hand on Stiles' arm. Her gaze suddenly reminded him of Halina's piercing stare.

"What?" Stiles asked, tapped nervously on the table

"Why didn't you take this to Deaton?" she asked, bluntly.

"It came to me last night that Deaton is this town's magical guru, and it is logical that you would have taken this to him, but you didn't. Why?"

Stiles looked away and sighed. "Because I don't trust him."

"Why?" Danny asked, finally looking away from his book. "From what you told me Deaton has helped you before."

"He's helped the pack," Stiles sadly, and shook his head. "Unfortunately for us, I'm not packing."

"Why does that matter?" Lydia asked, sharply.

"Deaton is the pack Emissary, and I don't know if he has to tell Derek about this. And I don't want Derek poking his big snout into this," Stiles answered.

"That's not all," Danny assumed, being way too perceptive for his own good.

Stiles ran a hand over his buzz cut, " He's kept things from us that would have otherwise helped us." He shook his head, "I don't know, Deaton just comes off as really shady, man."

Once again, Stiles was astonished that Lydia didn't press the issue; she simply nodded.

"Well, I guess it's going to come down to us finding the answers on our own." Lydia shoved a book into his hands. "I guess we have to get to work."

* * *

Stiles groaned and stretched, wincing at the cracks his joints made as he moved. He turned to look at the tall stacks of books that he still had to go through. They had worked in that study room all day, only taking a short break to eat lunch at a nearby diner. Stiles ate all the curly fries he wanted, while Lydia looked on with disgust as she primly ate her salad and drank her Evian water. Danny had laughed as he ate his own burger. During their short break, they didn't really talk about the supernatural; they stuck to normal things like the movies they wanted to see, upcoming parties, town gossip—Lydia was a fount of gossip on that front—and books they read.

It astonished Stiles to find that he really had a lot in common with Lydia and Danny. However, as he thought about it, maybe it wasn't all that surprising after all. Lydia and Danny were the two smartest kids in the school. He just knew that Lydia was going to Valedictorian and that both Danny and Stiles would probably have to compete for Salutatorian. It really surprised him, though, how easy it was to talk to them. Stiles didn't have to try to fit in, he could just be himself.

So it was a pleasant surprise to him how quickly their lunch went, and before they all knew it they had paid the check and headed back to the library. They had been talking about the latest Marvel movie when Stiles received a text from Julian.

Julian had wanted to check in on him and see if he was okay. And Stiles had quickly reassured him that he was fine and he was simply out with his friends. As they continued to walk, Stiles' attention was completely on his phone as he exchanged texts telling Julian about being out with his friends, while Julian lamented about how much he missed Stiles. Stiles had smiled down at his phone, a warm feeling at the thought of actually being needed for once washed over him.

"Stop day dreaming, Stiles." Lydia had snapped, as they headed inside the library.

Stiles rolled his eyes and put away his phone, before turning to her. "I'm not daydreaming."

"That goofy smile says otherwise, Stilinski," Danny snorted.

Stiles rolled up a receipt from his pocket and threw it at Danny, who caught it, before looking up and laughing.

"But seriously, you have that soppy look on your face," Danny said, lowering his voice as they passed the reception desk where the librarian was busy checking out books for an elderly man. He threw Stiles a teasing smile, "Got a new girl?"

Lydia went still and spun around to look at Stiles. She looked him up and down.

"You do look sappy," Lydia whispered accusingly, crossing her arms.

"I'm seeing someone, okay?" he blurted out, louder than he meant to. This was the first time he had actually admitted it to anyone. Hell, with them being on the outs, it was surreal that Lydia and Danny would know even before Scott.

"Hush, before the librarian kicks us out," Lydia hissed. She shook her head. "Now, spill."

Stiles took a heavy breath, before he finally said, "Look, his name is Julian and he's a college student at UC Beacon Hills ."

"A college man." Danny nodded in approval as they made their way between the shelves. "Nice."

"Since when have you not been straight?" Lydia demanded.

Danny snorted again. "It's been pretty obvious since he was going around asking if he was attractive to gay guys."

Lydia just rolled her eyes as they made their way to the study room. They all took their seats and sat down and got to business. They spent the rest of their time researching and taking notes. They sometimes exchanged books and discussed their own theories and the entire situation of the monster and Stiles' magic.

It was several hours later when Stiles' phone vibrated again. Distracted, he pulled out his phone and after he finished reading a passage in his current book he finally turned to read the display. Stiles's eyes went wide as he stared at the display.

"Oh, shit." He stumbled out of his chair, practically falling on the floor. "I got to get home. Dad wants me back at the house before sunset."

Lydia sighed in disappointment as she looked at the time on her laptop. "Fine, it's almost closing time anyway." Lydia put her laptop away and stood up and started to neatly stack up to the books. "I can't believe we didn't find anything."

Stiles shook his head as he finished shoving the discarded snack wrappers and chip bags into a trash bag. "It's like that, sometimes. You just have to dig a little deeper."

"Hold up, guys," Danny said excitingly. "I think you guys should see this."

Stiles dropped his bag and both of them hurried over to peer over Danny's shoulder.

"It says here that a witches coven can only combine magics with each other like we did that night that monster attacked." He pointed out a section. "It's called an Alignment."

"A coven, like a witch's coven?" Lydia snorted. "Like flying broomsticks, and dancing naked under the full moon?" She huffed and rolled her eyes. "That's a little illogical."

"So are werewolves, and Kanimas," Danny pointed out.

"And there is Deaton," Stiles added, nodding in agreement. "Magical Guru extraordinaire."

Danny looked at the book and pointed out another section. "It also says that new covens forming often feel the need to be physically close to each other. Like how we have been practically all over each other since the attack."

"So a coven." Stiles shook his head. "Just when I thought my life couldn't get weirder." His phone beeped again, and Stiles groaned. "I have to get going, but I'm definitely going to be researching this tonight."

Stiles picked up his bag of trash and shoved it into his backpack.

"I'm going to check this out," Danny announced, holding up the book.

"Just be sure to email us anything you find out," Lydia all but ordered.

"Will do," Stiles promised, giving a sloppy salute.

As Stiles made his way out of the Library, he couldn't quite wrap his mind around this newest revelation. It was right on his face the entire time and he had missed it. Was the magical...a witch? Stiles wrinkled his nose. This was like a section out of a novel or something. However, Stiles could slap himself for completely missing this logical conclusion.

It was just so weird. Stiles was used to being the powerless human of the group. No abilities or badass skills, other than research. He wondered what Derek would think about him now. He shivered because he knew Derek would not at all be happy that he had a group of supernaturally powered humans in his territory.

As Stiles drove out of the parking lot, he was resolved that he would try to keep all of this under wraps as long as possible.


End file.
